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V 


UNIVERSITY  OF 

lLLir~i~  LIBRARY 

AT  UR~ANA-GHAMPA!GN 

ILL  HIST.  SURVEY 


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THE  ILLINOIS-WABASH   LAND 
COMPANY  MANUSCRIPT 


manuscript  of  the  Illinois- 
A  Wabash  Land  Company  was 
recently  purchased  at  an  auction  in 
New  York  City.  It  is  evidently 
one  of  several  copies  made  for  the 
various  members  of  the  company  at 
the  time  when  the  two  companies, 
the  Illinois  Land  Company  and  the 
Wabash  Land  Company,  were 
united.  This  reproduction  has  been 
made  for  private  circulation  only, 
and  I  take  great  pleasure  in  sending 
it  to  you. 

CYRUS  H.  McCoRMicK 

November  i,  1914 
Chicago,  Illinois 

Copy  No MU 


THE  ILLINOIS-WABASH  LAND 
COMPANY  MANUSCRIPT 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 

BY 

CLARENCE  WALWORTH  ALVORD 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 

By  CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK 

1915 


[A  *  "i 


THE  ILLINOIS -WAB ASH 
LAND  COMPANY 


Trade  and  land-speculation!  The  story  of  these 
activities  contain  the  history  of  the  early  exploration 
and  colonization  of  western  America.  Such  docu- 
ments as  the  following,  which  have  sprung  out  of  the 
very  enterprises  of  nation-builders,  tell  this  story  so 
teeming  in  interest  and  justify  their  preservation  and 
close  study.  In  the  acts  here  told  and  in  others  like 
them  is  seen  the  germ  of  later  vast  enterprises  which 
have  resulted  in  covering  the  almost  deserted  forests 
and  prairies  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  with  their  popu- 
lous cities,  their  lovely  villages,  and  their  wealthy  farms. 
The  first  men  to  find  their  arduous  way  across  the 
mountains,  that  vast  buttress  against  the  enterprise  of 
the  British  tide-water  settlements,  were  hunters  and 
fur-traders,  who  were  almost  contemporary  in  their 
undertakings.  These  brought  back  to  the  settle- 
ments such  glowing  stories  of  the  richness  of  the  mid- 
land valley  that  the  land  speculators  were  aroused  to 
energy  and  preceded  the  farmer  in  the  mad  rush  west- 
ward; and  in  many  places  along  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  vasts  tracts  were  covered  with  claims  before 
the  first  real  home-builders  drove  their  wagons  or 
guided  their  flat-boats  to  this  Mecca  of  future  hope. 


Who  can  measure  the  value  to  the  West  of  the 
labor  of  these  enterprising  speculators  who  by  printed 
pamphlet  and  spoken  word  have  attracted  the  troops  of 
emigrants  to  seek  out  happier  conditions?  "Go  West," 
was  the  slogan  which  they  cried;  and  their  personal 
gain  or  loss  has  resulted  in  the  birth  of  many  states. 

If  the  complete  history  of  these  documents  were 
written,  it  would  require  many  pages,  because  it 
would  develop  into  a  treatise  on  the  British  land 
system  which  cannot  be  understood  without  a  disen- 
tanglement of  the  chaotic  politics  of  Great  Britain 
during  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century;  but  this 
is  neither  the  time  nor  place  to  enter  into  the  many 
complicated  problems  involved  in  such  a  study,  and 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  give  attention  only  to  the  most 
conspicuous  conditions  and  events. 

To  the  numerous  land  speculators  of  Great  Britain 
and  her  colonies,  the  government  seemed  exceedingly 
slow  in  determining  the  best  means  to  employ  in 
developing  the  American  West  that  had  been  ceded 
by  France  in  the  Treaty  of  Paris  of  1763;  and,  when 
it  was  decided  in  London  that  expansion  westward 
should  be  gradual  and  only  after  the  British  Govern- 
ment had  duly  purchased  from  the  Indians  their  rights, 
every  speculator  with  his  get-rich-quick  scheme  became 
disheartened.  The  slow  processes  of  British  diplo- 
macy did  not  offer  much  to  satisfy  their  eager  desires. 
The  Indian  boundary  lines  which  the  British  superin- 
tendents ran  during  the  years  1768-1770  along  the 
back  of  the  colonies,  opening  up  for  immediate 
settlement  only  part  of  western  Pennsylvania,  and 
what  is  now  West  Virginia,  cut  off  many  a  hope  for 
sudden  wealth.  It  seemed  that  the  British  govern- 


10 


ment  was  reserving  the  fair  lands  along  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  to  be  the  haunt  of  the  red  men  and  the 
temporary  sojourn  of  the  fur-trader. 

The  first  document  in  this  volume,  the  opinion 
of  Lords  Camden  and  Yorke,  in  regard  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Indian  nations,  aroused  the  land 
speculators  from  their  feeling  of  discouragement  and 
put  new  life  into  their  schemes  to  exploit  the  West 
which  now  seemed  to  lie  open  to  them  unprotected 
by  any  imperial  restriction.  The  history  of  this 
opinion  has,  so  far  as  is  known,  never  been  written. 
In  1769  Samuel  Wharton,  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia, 
went  to  London  in  the  interest  of  an  association  of 
merchants  who  had  suffered  considerable  losses  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  Indian  war  of  1763,  known  in  history 
as  the  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac.  At  the  treaty  of  Fort 
Stanwix  in  1768,  the  Indians  had  been  persuaded  to 
make  a  large  grant  of  land  in  what  is  now  West 
Virginia  in  compensation  for  these  losses,  and  Wharton 
was  sent  to  England  by  his  partners  to  persuade  the 
ministry  to  issue  letters-patent  for  this  grant.  In  this 
he  did  not  succeed;  but  he  wrote  home  that  this 
failure  made  no  difference,  because  he  had  obtained 
the  opinion  of  Lord  Camden  and  Lord  Chancellor 
Yorke  as  it  is  written  in  the  following  document. 
The  exact  date  of  this  opinion  can  not  be  established. 
Charles  Yorke  was  lord  chancellor  only  a  few  days 
before  his  death  in  January,  1770;  and  his  mental 
condition  during  that  period  was  such  that  the  opinion 
must  have  been  given  some  time  previous  to  his 
promotion.  The  date  of  the  opinion,  which  was 
wholy  private,  must,  therefore,  have  been  during  the 
year  1769. 


1 1 


According  to  it  any  man  or  group  of  men  could 
purchase  land  directly  from  the  Indian  tribes  which 
were  sovereign  nations,  and  such  titles  would  be 
regarded  as  legal  in  the  British  courts.  The  opinion 
was  soon  known  in  America,  although  Wharton  tried 
to  keep  it  quiet;  and  it  stirred  up  many  an  interest- 
ing land  scheme,  among  which  are  to  be  found  those 
of  the  Illinois  Land  Company  and  the  Wabash  Land 
Company,  later  united  into  the  Illinois-Wabash  Land 
Company,  whose  records  are  here  illustrated. 

Before  this  important  event  had  taken  place  in 
England,  the  country  of  Illinois  had  been  the  scene 
of  many  interesting  enterprises,  that  have  a  very  direct 
connection  with  this  land  speculation. 

After  the  final  occupation  of  the  Illinois  country 
by  the  British  troops  in  the  fall  of  1765,  there  was  a 
rush  of  traders  into  the  region.  The  principal  and 
first  firm  to  enter  the  eager  competition  for  the 
western  fur-trade  was  that  of  Baynton,  Wharton,  and 
Morgan  of  Philadelphia,  who  made  elaborate  prepar- 
ations. In  a  letter  from  a  member  of  the  firm  there 
is  found  an  estimate  that  over  three  hundred  boat- 
men were  being  employed  by  them  to  convey  their 
goods  to  Kaskaskia.  These  merchants  were  left  only 
a  short  time  to  enjoy  their  trade  in  peace.  A  Phila- 
delphia and  London  firm,  Franks  and  Company, 
reached  out  also  for  this  western  trade;  and  for  several 
years  there  was  a  very  bitter  rivalry.  Both  firms  tried 
to  obtain  the  concession  to  furnish  the  provisions  for 
the  British  troops  in  the  country  and  both  engaged 
in  extensive  trading  for  furs.  Baynton,  Wharton,  and 
Morgan  were  the  first  also  to  attempt  to  gain  a  large 
land  grant  in  the  Illinois,  but  in  spite  of  the  efforts 


12 


of  their  representative  in  London,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
they  were  unsuccessful;  and  since  their  trading  venture 
did  not  succeed,  they  gradually  withdrew  from  the 
country  and  left  the  field  to  their  rivals. 

The  able  representative  of  Franks  and  Company 
at  Kaskaskia  was  the  William  Murray  who  figures  so 
largely  in  the  following  documents.  Concerning  him 
little  is  known.  There  are  in  existence,  however, 
several  of  his  letters  to  his  partners,  which  reveal  him 
as  a  man  of  pleasing  personality  and  of  jocose  mood. 
He  calls  himself  at  the  time  a  merchant  residing  in 
Philadelphia.  He  lived,  however,  several  years  in 
Kaskaskia  and  left  there  finally  two  years  before  the 
village  was  taken  by  the  Virginians  in  1778.  From 
his  letters  it  is  evident  that  his  firm  had  not  prospered 
as  the  members  had  expected,  and  so  they  determined 
on  a  bold  venture. 

Murray  began  the  trip  to  Illinois,  which  ended  in 
the  purchase  of  land  by  the  Illinois  Land  Company 
in  the  spring  of  the  year  1773.  From  Pittsburg  he 
wrote  to  two  of  his  partners,  Bernard  and  Michael 
Gratz,  a  letter  in  which  he  says  that  he  had  visited  the 
famous  frontiersman  and  land  speculator,  George 
Croghan,  who,  he  writes,  "assured  me,  That  Lords 
Camden  and  Yorke  Personally  Confirmed  to  him  the 
Opinion  respecting  Indian  Titles,  when  C[rogha]n  was 
last  in  England.  So  Courage  my  Boys;  I  hope  We  shall 
yet  be  Satisfied  for  our  Past  Vexations  attending  our 
Concern  in  the  Illinois. . . .  Thos.  Minshall,  Capts.  Col- 
lander  &  Thompson  and  John  Campbell  have  Signed 
the  Land  Affair  which  makes  twenty-two  shares." 

With  light  heart  and  in  an  optimistic  mood, 
William  Murray  shortly  after  set  out  on  the  Ohio 

'3 


and  reached  his  destination  on  June  11,  as  we  learn 
from  a  letter  of  Captain  Hugh  Lord,  commandant 
of  Fort  Gage  in  Kaskaskia  village.  Murray,  upon  his 
arrival,  showed  the  commandant  a  copy  of  the  legal 
opinion  of  the  two  noted  jurists,  but  the  captain  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  frightened,  for  he  informed 
Murray  that  he  "should  not  suffer  him  to  settle  any 
of  the  lands  as  it  was  expressly  contrary  to  his  Majesty's 
Orders;"  but  Murray's  own  narrative,  as  published  in 
one  of  the  later  pamphlets  of  the  company,  informs 
us  of  his  continued  activities  in  spite  of  the  hostile 
attitude  of  the  commandant.  "In  the  month  of 
June,  1773,"  he  writes,  "I  held  several  public  con- 
ferences with  the  several  tribes  of  the  Illinois  Nations  of 
Indians,  at  Kaskaskia  village;  to  all  which  conferences 
I  invited  to  be  present,  the  British,  officers  and  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  place,  and  a  great  number  attended 
accordingly." 

He  then  goes  on  to  relate  how  on  July  fifth  he 
entered  into  that  agreement  for  himself  and  associates 
with  the  chiefs  of  the  Illinois  Indians,  a  copy  of  which 
may  be  found  in  the  later  pages.  By  this  the  Illinois 
Land  Company  became  the  owner,  under  an  Indian 
title,  of  two  large  tracts  of  land,  one  on  the  Illinois 
River  and  the  other  on  the  Ohio.  This  deed  was 
duly  registered  by  the  notary  public  at  Kaskaskia 
and  was  attested  by  Captain  Hugh  Lord,  who  reported 
the  sale  immediately  to  his  superiors  with  his  own 
adverse  opinion.  His  prompt  action  led  to  some 
correspondence  and  at  length  to  instructions,  which 
belong  to  a  later  period  of  this  story. 

If  the  list  of  the  members  of  the  Illinois  Land 
Company  is  examined,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  all 


belonged  to  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania,  where  spec- 
ulation in  western  lands  had  always  been  popular. 
Still  it  was  not  to  the  authorities  of  that  colony  that 
these  men  turned  for  assistance  in  making  good  their 
title,  but  rather  to  the  governor  of  Virginia,  Lord 
Dunmore.  One  of  the  reasons  for  this  was  that 
Virginia's  charter-claims  extended  over  the  Illinois 
country;  but  probably  of  much  greater  importance 
was  the  fact  that  Lord  Dunmore's  ambitions  were 
leading  him  to  seek  a  fortune  in  land-speculation. 
It  was  also  probably  well  known  to  Murray  and  his 
associates  that  Dunmore's  chief  legal  adviser  in  his 
western  plans,  Patrick  Henry,  shared  the  opinion  of 
Lords  Camden  and  Yorke  in  regard  to  the  sovereign 
rights  of  Indians. 

William  Murray  now  became  the  prime  mover 
in  the  formation  of  a  new  land  company,  the  later 
Wabash  Land  Company,  and  the  purpose  of  its 
formation  was  to  induce  Lord  Dunmore  to  give  sup- 
port to  both  enterprises.  In  a  letter  of  May  16, 1774, 
written  at  Philadelphia,  Murray  writes  of  both  "the 
old  and  new  Affair,"  and  again  he  writes,  "Eight  in 
Maryland  have  signed  to  the  new  Affair."  This  "new 
Affair"  can  only  refer  to  the  Wabash  Land  Company, 
several  members  of  which  resided  in  Maryland,  but 
most  important  of  all  the  leading  member  was  John 
Murray,  Earl  of  Dunmore,  governor  of  Virginia. 

The  occurrence  of  this  name  among  the  list  of 
members  of  the  new  company  explains  quite  plainly 
the  petition  of  the  Illinois  Land  Company  which  was 
addressed  to  the  Earl  on  April  19,  1774.  The  peti- 
tion recites  the  circumstances  of  the  purchase  as  they 
have  been  here  explained  and  prays  that  "your  Lord- 


ship  be  pleased  to  take  the  petitioners  and  their 
settlements  into  the  protection  of  your  Lordship's 
Government  of  Virginia,  and  extend  to  them  the 
Laws  and  Jurisdiction  of  Your  Colony  Accordingly." 
This  petition  Dunmore  transmitted  in  May  to  Lord 
Dartmouth,  the  secretary  of  state  for  the  colonies, 
with  his  most  cordial  recommendation.  He  writes: 
"Whatever  may  be  the  Law  with  respect  to  the  title, 
there  are,  I  think,  divers  reasons  which  should  induce 
His  Majesty  to  Comply  with  the  Petition,  so  far  at 
least  as  to  admit  the  Petitioners  and  their  Acquisitions 
if  not  into  this  Government,  into  Some  Other.  .  .  . 
I  cannot  then  but  think,  that,  Seeing  there  is  no 
possibility  of  setting  bounds  to  the  Settlements  of  the 
Americans,  it  would  tend  most  to  the  Advantage  of 
His  Majesty  and  to  preserve  the  peace  and  order  of  the 
back  Countries,  that  His  Majesty  should  indulge  the 
views  of  Adventurers  like  the  Present,  who  willingly 
conform  to  Government."  In  a  later  letter  Lord 
Dunmore  denied  that  he  was  in  any  way  interested 
in  the  Illinois  speculation,  which  statement  might  be 
regarded  by  a  toughened  conscience  as  true.  Still  the 
Wabash  plan  was  already  launched  and  Dunmore's 
name  led  all  the  rest. 

The  minister  was  not  in  a  mood  to  receive  the 
advice  of  Lord  Dunmore  favorably.  The  problem 
of  the  West  had  always  been  a  perplexing  one;  but 
in  one  view  the  ministers  were  unanimous,  namely, 
that  no  act  should  be  tolerated  which  would  tend  to 
arouse  the  Indians  again;  and  they  held  that  the  per- 
mission to  form  settlements  west  of  the  Indian 
boundary  line  would  be  such  an  act.  The  first  news 
of  William  Murray's  action  was  brought  to  the  secre- 

16 


tary  for  the  colonies  by  General  Gage,  at  the  time 
in  England.  The  result  was  a  letter  of  censure  to 
Lord  Dunmore  and  instructions  to  the  acting  com- 
mander-in-chief  in  America  to  prevent  the  undertak- 
ings of  Murray  and  his  associates.  A  quotation  from 
the  commander's  letter  to  Captain  Hugh  Lord  at  the 
Illinois  will  illustrate  the  situation:  "Having  laid 
before  His  Majesty's  Principal  Secretary  of  State  for 
America,  your  report  to  me  of  the  transactions  of 
several  persons,  who  in  contempt  of  the  King's  Pro- 
clamation herewith  sent,  have  unwarrantly  purchased 
from  the  Indians  such  lands  as  are  undoubtedly 
intended  to  be  reserved  to  them,  and  were  never  to 
be  acquired  but  under  the  Sanction  of  Government; 
it  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  can  communicate  to 
you  his  Lordship's  Approbation  of  your  commendable 
attention  to  the  very  extraordinary  attempts  to  acquire 
a  title  to  the  possession  of  lands  in  a  part  of  the 
Country  where  all  new  settlement  has  been  forbidden 
by  the  King's  said  proclamation. 

you  will  therefore  take  all  opportunities  to  acquaint 
the  Indians  with  this,  His  Majesty's  concern  for  their 
happiness  and  welfare,  in  preventing  persons  taking 
advantage  of  them  and  purchasing  the  lands  which  it 
is  the  King's  determined  resolution  to  reserve  to  them, 
and  to  prevent  as  much  as  lays  in  your  power  any 
purchase  so  contrary  to  the  Royal  will  and  regula- 
tions *  *  *  and  that  his  Majesty's  new  Subjects  may 
not  be  deceived  and  persuaded  to  act  contrary  to  the 
intent  of  it,  JV.  e.  the  proclamation}^  you  will  be  pleased 
to  order  the  Notary  Public  to  erase  from  his  Registers 
any  of  the  proceedings  relative  to  the  purchase  already 
made  and  publicly  to  protest  against  them,  and  to 

'7 


declare   all   that  has  been  or  may  be   done   hereafter 
relative  to  it  void  and  of  non-effect." 

Not  satisfied  with  this  mere  prohibition  the  min- 
istry determined  to  remove  the  whole  Northwest  from 
the  danger  of  such  lawless  attempts.  The  news  of 
Murray's  purchase  arrived  in  England  at  the  time  when 
the  ministry  had  under  consideration  some  important 
changes  in  the  constitution  of  the  colony  of  Canada 
and  also  at  a  time  when  the  lack  of  government  in 
Illinois  was  forcibly  called  to  their  attention  by  a 
petition  of  the  Illinois  French.  The  necessity  of  pro- 
tecting the  lands  of  the  Indians  from  speculators 
appeared  to  them  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify 
uniting  the  Illinois  issue  with  the  Canadian.  The 
result  was  the  well-known  Quebec  Bill  of  1774  which 
extended  the  newly  formed  government  of  Canada  to 
the  unsettled  prairies  of  the  Old  Northwest;  and  it 
was  hoped  in  London  that  the  new  government  would 
prevent  illegal  settlement  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  rivers. 

Meanwhile  the  news  of  the  opinion  of  Lords 
Camden  and  Yorke  had  become  more  generally  known 
to  the  land  speculators  and  many  purchases  of  land 
were  proposed  and  some  were  actually  made  from  the 
Indians,  the  most  notable  being  that  of  Kentucky 
and  part  of  Tennessee  by  Richard  Henderson  and 
Company  of  North  Carolina.  In  the  Illinois,  Murray's 
example  was  almost  immediately  followed  by  a  couple 
of  Frenchmen  who  made  a  large  purchase  from  the 
tribe  of  the  Mitchigami.  The  plans  of  the  company 
of  which  Lord  Dunmore  was  a  member  were  also 
carried  out  and  the  record  of  their  purchase  forms  one 
of  the  following  documents. 

18 


That  Captain  Hugh  Lord  obeyed  his  commander's 
orders  to  annul  the  purchase  by  the  Illinois  Land 
Company  we  are  informed  by  Murray,  who  writes: 
"About  eighteen  months  subsequent  to  this  transac- 
tion General  Gage  ordered  the  same  commanding 
officer  to  convene  the  Indian  chiefs  afresh,  after  I 
purchased  the  lands,  and  to  inform  them:  <That  not- 
withstanding the  sale  they  had  made,  and  the  con- 
sideration they  had  received,  that  they  might  hold 
those  lands,  and  that  they  were  still  their  property.' 

"After  some  deliberation,  the  chiefs  replied,  'That 
they  thought  what  the  Great  Captain  said  was  not 
right;  that  they  had  sold  the  lands  to  me  and  my 
friends  not  for  a  short  time,  but,  as  long  as  the  sun 
rose  and  set;  * 

That  I  had  paid  them  what  they  had  agreed  for  and 
to  their  satisfaction  and  the  more  than  they  had 
asked  for." 

Such  a  reply  was  naturally  very  satisfactory  to  the 
speculators;  and  in  September,  1775,  William  Murray 
commenced  negotiations  at  Vincennes  with  the  chiefs 
of  the  Piankashaw  and.Wea  tribes  "with  the  same 
caution,  deliberation  and  form  observed  as  in  the  first 
land  purchase."  This  time  he  allowed  his  partner,  a 
Frenchman  of  Kaskaskia,  Louis  Viviat,  to  act  as  the 
agent;  and  he  succeeded  on  October  18,  1775,  in 
consummating  a  purchase  from  the  Indians  of  two 
large  tracts  of  land,  one  above  and  one  below  the 
village  of  Vincennes.  This  deed  was  also  duly  reg- 
istered by  a  notary  at  Kaskaskia. 

The  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War  changed 
the  whole  condition  in  the  West,  which  became  the 
scene  of  the  murderous  attacks  of  the  savages  and  of 

19 


the  dramatic  defense  of  their  feeble  settlements  by  the 
frontiersmen.  The  destiny  of  the  West  remained  in 
the  balance  till  the  very  end,  when  fate  decreed  that 
a  new  nation  should  control  the  region. 

One  very  dramatic  western  event  belongs  to  this 
period.  The  occupation  of  the  Illinois  country  by 
the  Virginians  under  George  Rogers  Clark  is  so  well 
known  in  history  and  novel  that  the  event  does  not 
need  to  be  described  here;  but  the  expedition  of 
Clark  was  not  wholly  unrelated  to  the  actions  illus- 
trated by  these  documents,  nor  were  the  men 
connected  with  the  two  land  companies  wholly 
uninterested  spectators  of  the  deeds  of  Clark.  Although 
the  proof  of  their  direct  influence  upon  the  expedition 
of  that  bold  Virginian  hangs  upon  a  weak  and 
tortuous  line  of  reasoning,  yet  the  writer  of  this 
introduction,  who  has  long  and  carefully  investigated 
the  men  and  measures  of  the  West,  is  convinced  that 
the  account  which  follows  is  approximately  true. 

In  1776  William  Murray  went  to  New  Orleans 
and  was  there  when  some  Virginians  under  Captain 
Gibson  came  down  the  Mississippi  River  to  purchase 
powder  for  the  colonies  from  the  Spaniards.  The 
expedition  did  not  ascend  the  river  until  the  spring 
of  1777.  With  it  went  two  letters.  One  we  know 
was  written  by  William  Murray  to  his  brother  Daniel 
at  Kaskaskia,  wherein  the  latter  was  instructed  to  be 
prepared  to  assist  any  company  of  Americans  who 
might  come.  The  other  letter,  of  which  we  know 
very  little,  was  to  a  merchant  of  Kaskaskia,  Thomas 
Bentley,  from  which  he  learned  that  spies  were  to  be 
sent  to  the  village  to  investigate  the  conditions.  A 
few  weeks  later  such  spies  were  actually  sent  by 


20 


George  Rogers  Clark.      Here  is  certainly  a  connec- 
tion between  William  Murray  and  Clark. 

There  is  also  some  evidence  of  an  eastern  connec- 
tion between  the  land  companies  and  Clark,  although 
the  character  of  the  connection  is  very  difficult  to 
discover.  The  governor  of  Virginia  at  the  time  was 
Patrick  Henry  who  had  been  the  right  hand  man  and 
chief  adviser  of  Lord  Dunmore  in  all  his  western 
enterprises.  It  was  before  Henry  that  Clark  laid  his 
plans  for  the  taking  of  the  Illinois  posts;  and,  when 
he  had  successfully  persuaded  the  governor  to  give 
his  consent  to  them  he  wrote  triumphantly  in  his 
diary:  "taken  in  partnership  by  his  Excellency  P. 
Henry  in  taking  a  Body  of  Land."  Although  we 
know  no  more  about  this  partnership,  it  seems  very 
probable  that,  when  land  speculation  was  being  dis- 
cussed, the  purchase  of  the  two  land  companies,  so 
well  known  to  Henry,  must  have  entered  into  the 
conversation.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that 
there  is  no  evidence  that  Governor  Henry  ever  had 
any  direct  connection  with  either  of  the  companies. 

That  the  companies  were  carefully  watching  the 
events  in  the  West  is  shown  by  the  immediate  appear- 
ance of  their  representative  William  Murray  at  the 
capital  of  Virginia,  as  soon  as  Clark's  success  was 
known,  to  petition  the  legislature  to  allow  their  pur- 
chases. Virginia  was  not  prepared,  however,  to  grant 
such  a  request  and,  in  fact,  prohibited  all  settlement 
north  of  the  Ohio  River  until  the  war  was  closed. 

From  the  later  documents  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  two  companies  were  united  and  preparations  were 
made  to  push  their  claims,  but  for  the  purposes  of 
this  introduction  the  later  history  of  the  Illinois- 


21 


Wabash  Land  Company  need  not  be  given  in  detail. 
From  scattered  notices,  it  is  evident  that  some  few 
settlers  were  actually  sent  by  the  company  to  Vin- 
cennes.  It  is  also  well  known  that  the  company 
pressed  its  suit  before  the  Continental  Congress,  and 
later  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  but 
all  without  success.  Thus  the  purchases  by  the  com- 
pany came  to  naught;  but  the  enterprise  itself  was 
not  without  significance,  for  the  Illinois -Wabash 
Land  Company  was  one  of  the  first  great  companies, 
some  successful,  some  unsuccessful,  which  have  aided 
in  the  settlement  of  the  West.  William  Murray, 
whose  name  is  almost  unknown  in  history,  was  but 
the  prototype  of  hundreds  who  have  followed  his 
example;  and  his  name  should  be  linked  with  those 
of  his  contemporaries,  Richard  Henderson  and  George 
Morgan,  who,  though  unsuccessful,  were  pioneer 
promoters  of  settlement  on  a  large  scale  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley. 


22 


FAC-SIMILE  OF 

THE   ILLINOIS-WABASH    LAND 
COMPANY  MANUSCRIPT 

IN  THE   POSSESSION  OF 

CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK 


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